I've never tried to make lemon bars. I don't do anything too complicated so I never have any big issues.

Right now I mostly make cake, brownies and the other day I made these mini-pumpkin pies but I didn't do the crust from scratch. The first batch I used a pre-made crust and the second I used a pie crust mix. My crusts turned out better than my SIL's but she made hers from scratch.

I've always had trouble with pancakes. They never come out like IHOP or other restaurants. I did, however, recently find a great recipe and I made one change which seemed to make them lighter and fluffier than any other homemade recipe I had made before. I separated my egg and whipped the whites into peaks and folded it in as my last step. Not bad.

I've always had trouble with pancakes. They never come out like IHOP or other restaurants. I did, however, recently find a great recipe and I made one change which seemed to make them lighter and fluffier than any other homemade recipe I had made before. I separated my egg and whipped the whites into peaks and folded it in as my last step. Not bad.

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I always fail at pancakes too. Will have to try that.

I'm better at baking than cooking, and I love making bread. But I can generally manage to follow a recipe and cook competently too. The one thing that I wish I could make though, and that I never manage to get right, is roast chicken. And I love a good roast chicken.

I have trouble with pancakes too, I think it's impossible to make a good pancake unless you have a griddle for flipping. Ditto omelettes - though I'm keen to try a frittata by cooking the bottom on the stove, then finishing and browning it in the oven.

I've also had no luck with sweet and sour soup, which left me reluctant to attempt Chinese recipes at all. I fared a little better at Japanese soups made with a dashi (fish) base, but can't compete with ramen made by Japanese chefs. I can do Thai recipes though - Japanese and Chinese give me something to go out for.

I can't do pizza dough. Every time I've tried to make my own, it comes out so leaden and heavy that if I dropped it on the floor, it'd probably just keep going until it hit the basement. I'm fine with most breads, but not that one.

For those who have pancake issues Aunt Jemima makes a fantastic boxed mix. It's the Buttermilk Complete and even though it's a "just add water" mix I swear it makes easy and delicious pancakes. Someone told me about it years ago and I was skeptical but it really is quite tasty. And easy. Oh so very easy.

I've always been a loser when it comes to working with dried beans but I think I finally cracked the code. Turns out that if you cook dried beans with tomatoes then they'll NEVER soften. That's what the Interwebz taught me this week.

Savory pie crust. My crusts with sugar and more fats come out fine. The ones that just have fat, salt, flour and water drive me CRAZY. Either they're too dry to roll out, or too wet and taste like cardboard.

I can't do pizza dough. Every time I've tried to make my own, it comes out so leaden and heavy that if I dropped it on the floor, it'd probably just keep going until it hit the basement. I'm fine with most breads, but not that one.

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Try adding gluten.

I used to make pizza dough for a living, from a multi-award winning recipe, and the chef told me that the key to good pizza dough is using high-gluten flour.

Like several others, I'm not much of a baker - I cook everything else, but haven't really baked much since cookies and boxed mixes as a child.

One thing I do do well is pie crust - I have any awesome recipe (happy to send Aceon6, just let me know), totally delicious and flaky every time, perfect for fruit pies, savoury tarts, pot pies. But I totally suck at forming the darn thing, and no matter how careful I am, it comes out a big mess. Delicious, but distinctly unattractive. I have tried calling it "rustic" or "free form" but no one's falling for my PR efforts

I used to make pizza dough for a living, from a multi-award winning recipe, and the chef told me that the key to good pizza dough is using high-gluten flour.

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I don't know if it's high gluten, but based on Jamie Oliver's recipe, we use Italian pizza flour labelled Tipo 00 - it's so light the dough almost rises too much! We're trying to figure out how to do a thin crust, so suggestions welcome.

Japfan - A friend told me a secret about crepes - you need TWO pans going. Then when one is done - instead of trying to turn or flip it, you just loosen an edge a little and hold the skillet upside down and the crepe into the other heated skillet. Both need to be non stick skillets. The whole process goes faster too.

Aunt Jemima - I love the mix too but I use the one where you add the egg and oil - I suspect she uses more of a cake flour because nothing comes close to being as light and delicious while still tasting like a pancake.

Chocolate chip cookies - to keep them from going too flat, put the dough in the fridge for a while before you put it on the cookie sheet; don't put them on a hot cookie sheet from the oven; also I subsitute about a 1/4 cup of sour cream for 1/4 of the butter, which also keeps them fluffier and softer.

Pie crust - I've only done a homemade pie crust a couple of times, but making sure that the water you add to the recipe is really really cold (in fact, I just put water and ice cubes into one bowl, and then take the tablespoons of water out of that) is what is supposed to help. But I also cheat and roll the dough out on a piece of plastic wrap (I guess a silicon cutting board would work too), and then just flip it into the pie pan, and then peel off the plastic.

omelettes - they don't compare to the guy in the hotel restaurant with the funny hat, expensive pan, and 400 ingredients to chose from. Frankly, if I were wealthy I would hire him and a chaffeur!

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That's the one thing I can't do. My dream is for there to be an omelet station with a chef in my kitchen. But it seems like that would be costly. Particularly since we don't want omelets every day.

My grandma constantly repeated to all of us that while you can toss a dash of this and a bit of that and scoop of something into cooking, the rule of baking is to be exact with every ingredient. Make sure you have measured it carefully, level off the dry ingredients, etc... And if you are having trouble with yeast breads or rolls, be sure you check to see that your yeast is active first.

Not a specific item, but whenever there is whipping cream involved, I have to stop and remind myself several times that 1/2 pint = 1 cup. I have screwed up more recipies by dumping in a pint box. And I used to cook for a living! (btw that's not the reason I don't any more )